It does not lie in the mouth of Gladstonians to say that the measure of 1886 was unjust.

It was laid before the country as a compromise which was just to England and to Ireland.

The Irish leaders, we were told, accepted the proposal, just as we are told that they accept the proposed constitution of 1893.

If the acceptance was honest, then in 1886 they agreed to a bargain far more favourable to England than the contract now pressed on our acceptance.

If their acquiescence was a mere pretence, what trust can we place in the assertion that they accept the arrangement of 1893?
However this may be, it is clear that England is now offered a position of weakness and of inferiority such as she has never occupied during the whole course of her history.